Resplendent

Resplendent, 2002

Resplendent, 2002

Resplendent, 2002

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Resplendent is a project that examines difficult issues of post-war Japanese history, inspired by letters in support of Nagasaki Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima’s controversial statement that Emperor Hirohito accept a share of the responsibility for World War II. The installation deals with the ambivalent symbolism of the cherry blossom in Japan during the war, which was manipulated into a symbol that granted a kind of poignant beauty to the actions of those who were sacrificing their lives in battle. Its symbolism intensified in the last years of the war, even when some Japanese military leaders were aware of defeat, during which the largest numbers of casualties occurred. In the center of the floor are nine individually blown bell jars, each sloping up to a gentle point and sandblasted with the emblem of the cherry blossom. In the center of most of the paper cherry blossoms on the walls are faces. The faces come from a book made to remember World War II casualties from a small town in Japan.